Wine Barrels

I purchased several wine barrels to do a container garden, tomatoes, squash of several variety, and bell peppers. Everything was growing really good until the plants started producing. The tomatoes are miss-shapened and have a large brown spot on the bottoms. The squash are producing but seem to be stunted and then rot. The only thing that looks good is the bells. Should I have treated the barrels with something? Is the wine killing everything slowly? What could be the problem?

Answers

The wine is long gone, and what is left in the wood is only organic, grape remnant. But wine barrels do get washed the first year with sodium metabisulphate a kind of chlorine, but I don't even think your plants would be affected by that. A good winery then sells its barrels, as it can spoil the taste of the new wine.